> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jerry D. Harris
>
> News to me, and I agree...I don't see much point in having any period
> defined by something other than stage boundaries! I'm guessing that they
> want this for one of two reasons: (1) it is a nice unit of time in which
> much of immediate human & hominid history has occurred, and (2) it probably
> brackets the time period for which extremely fine-scale geologic data
> (climate data, etc.) can be readily obtained. Dunno any of that for
> certain, though.
And there is their own particular field of "Quaternary Studies", whereas there
is no "Paleozoic Studies" or "Cretaceous Studies".
> The first time I saw "K/P boundary," I said the exact same thing, and I
> agree that this is what it _should_ be called, and am more than happy to do
> so myself. However, most of the papers I've seen already that discuss the
> boundary and eschew the term "Tertiary" have, for whatever (albeit
> erroneous) reasons, called it the K/P or K-P boundary. My guess is that it
> still rolls of the tongue nice and smooth, just like K/T boundary did. Even
> the 2004 Geologic Time Scale:
>
> Gradstein, F. M., J. G. Ogg, and A. Smith. 2004. A Geologic Time Scale 2004.
> Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 589 pp.
>
> ...get this wrong, and call it the K-P boundary (e.g., p. 387).
> Interestingly, I haven't spotted anywhere in the book where they use "P" as
> an abbreviation for Permian (or, for that matter, where they discuss
> appropriate abbreviations at all, which I would assume that they also govern
> along with the nomenclature)
[snip]
Well, it may be that the national geologic bodies dominate that. The following
link goes to a copy of the (somewhat outdated, esp.
as it uses the old USGS Precambrian symbols) list of geologic time
abbreviations:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1999/of99-430/of99-430_sec38.pdf
And if you scroll down to Paleogene, you find Pg (or more correctly,
P<sub>G</sub>).
> though I have no idea why. Maybe it's 'cuz Cretaceous workers always forget
> there was a Permian long before there was a Paleogene???
> Chronostratigraphic tunnel vision?
Indeed!!
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland College Park Scholars
Mailing Address:
Building 237, Room 1117
College Park, MD 20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone: 301-405-4084 Email: tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol): 301-314-9661 Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796